The nights are fair drawing in and Malcolm Middleton is excited again about music. He’ll play solo in Prague and Athens next week ahead of a “Long, Dark Night” acoustic tour of the UK. Malcolm has also been back in the studio with Aidan Moffat working on an Arab Strap boxset and more:

Ticket details for the Czech Republic and Greece shows are below. For details on the UK tour, please see Malcolm’s myspace page. Last week Malcolm wrote a “newsletter” about the upcoming tour and his favourite songs of all time.

Yes, the nights are fair drawing in. Do I always start my newsletters with a weather forecast? I’ll have to check. Seems appropriate though. Everything is slowly unfading into soft-focus. The layers of the onion are disolving into your tears to reveal that there is no onion. There you go, that’s all the news I have, goodbye.…
Oops. Someone’s been in the Mind, Body, Spirit section again I think.…
Do I always start my newsletters with a disclaimer that there really is no news, and then just plug my tour dates?..
Yep.…
My Long, Dark Night solo acoustic tour will shortly be under way, but not before a quick jont to Prague and Athens. I am slightly nervous because of the mammoth amount of words I will have to remember. Five albums worth of grumbling winky insights and self-flagellating poetry. Sorry, not poetry, that is just wrong. Anyway, the idea for the tour was just to celebrate all of my worst & most cringing moments. Get some comfort from the bad stuff for just a little bit longer. If you’re coming to any of the shows and want to hear something specific please let me know via the “contact” page of my website. (I do get those messages, it’s just too complicated and fidgety to reply most of the time). Bearing in mind though that there are some songs which are impossible to do with just a guitar, and others that I simply refuse to go near.…
I have a 7″ single coming out, hopefully I’ll have it to sell on tour. If not then it’ll be available from the Full Time Hobby webshop. It’s called “Girl Songs E.P.” and it has covers of Issues (The Saturdays), Call The Shots (Girls Aloud), My Delirium (Ladyhawke) and One Of Us (Joan Osbourne). It’ll be available for download too from all the usual places.…
Arab Strap are reforming! Just kidding. But I’ve been in the studio with Aidan putting the finishing touches to a boxset which will be released on Chemikal Underground next year. Very exciting. Our throats are swollen with nostalgia. Even though it’s only been three years.…
I’ve also been doing some music for a short film by Scottish director Michael Keillor, I’ll keep you posted.…
And my favourite song of ALL TIME which I’ve recently rediscovered is the album version of Welcome To The Pleasuredome, by Frankie Goes To Hollywood. It’s so clear now. This song and Pat Benatar’s “Seven The Hard Way”, these are the things I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to best for years. Sitting with my grey school shirt burning my back against the radiator in winter before going to school. Slice of toast in one hand, record sleeve in the other. Dreaming of my first appearance on TOTP. Ah, what happened. Not a question.

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Anyway, I’m getting perspective on things at last, this has been a strange year. I grumblingly released my 5th album in a hail of self-deprecating bullets, anti-marketing and apathy, which was a mistake. I don’t know what all that was about. Music seems exciting again now and I can’t wait to get stuck into whatever I do next. With vigour. (As long as no one’s looking).…
Ok, back to my Thursday morning gay disco.…
Auf wiedersehen,…
Malcolm.…
p.s. Come and see me.